:D She Said Yes

The day was wonderful! Thanks for your prayers everyone. It was clear the moment we took off that the one who paints the sunrise had heard our prayers and was preparing a perfect day for us.

The flight was perfect. The picnic on the beach was perfect. And the party when we got back was absolutely perfect. Thank you so much to everyone for the part you played in this. Thanks for coming together to love with us.

Thank you all so much for every ounce of love and care you've put into this. Thank you to those who gave me change at metro stops. Thank you to those who gave me stories and laughs through videos and pictures. Thank you to those who brought their bikes by for tune-ups and for those who sat on my couch and let me get to know them a bit. Thank you to those who sent me money through PayPal. Thank you to those who helped plan, set-up, and take-down the party. Thank you to those who came to the party to celebrate with us. And thank you most of all to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for teaching us how to love, for rescuing us from death and leading us into life. Only in his power and through his love will our marriage be truly blessed.

I do apologize for how long it's taken me to get this up. It's a daunting task to figure out how to sum up everything that happened in one blog post. As you can see, I still haven't quite figured it out. I hope this picture can tell you all everything you need to know or now. We are both quite happy!

A Different Perspective

As a housemate of my friend David, I've had the joy of seeing his grand plan unfold. Now the stage is set, every piece is in place, and in just a few days he will take to one knee to propose to Chrissa.

Having come so far toward making his dream a reality, with many thanks to you, I wanted to offer you a glance from my perspective on David's "perfect proposal."

It was only a few weeks ago that David sat in the kitchen of our house pondering what seemed like the great divide between his dream and financial reality. I'm sure all too many of us have been in the same situation. Yet one look at the wicked smile on David's face told you everything; this was a challenge. What he needed were ideas.

To be precise, what he needed were good ideas. After all, a house full of guys rarely lacks harebrained schemes. And so it was that idea after idea was tossed out, and one after the other fell under a hail of withering laughter. Until one came up that, well, seemed just crazy enough to work.

That idea, as you may have guessed, was to actually ask all of you for your help in making his perfect proposal a reality. There was a simple brilliance to the notion of just standing in front of a Metro stop to ask for help to make the proposal possible, or to put David's bicycle knowledge to work by offering simple tune-ups at our house. In fact, it wasn't just brilliant; it was quite apt. I've never been in the situation of asking a girl to marry me, but I would imagine it's one of the most humbling and exciting time's of your life. You're putting yourself out there, almost falling forward into the arms of someone that you trust will catch you right then with a "yes." In much the same way, David would be opening himself up to either acceptance or rejection, except now to hundreds of strangers!

It wasn't but a few days later that David came home with a pan, a camera, $50 and the widest grin I've ever seen. After three hours of asking Metro riders for their spare change or simply a glance in his direction, he was one step closer to being a happily engaged man. Without a doubt, it had been hard. For every twenty passers-by, one stopped to help. But that one, oh, that's the one he lived for. One man came up, heartily shook his hand, and regaled him with stories of his own recent engagement. Another wagged his finger in David's direction, telling him that wedding bells bore ill omens. David took that one in stride.

Next up were the tune-ups. In no time at all, our living room was transformed into a bike repair shop. From all over the neighborhood, people brought their bikes to David. And every night I came home, there was David, arms-deep in bike grease. Through it all I saw shirtless David, shirtless with an apron David, lumberjack David, mechanic David; the looks changed, but the grease remained.

Every night there was someone new hanging at our house to get their bike fixed. So many new faces to meet, and most of them worn by neighbors we had never met. This too was apt in its own way. David was preparing himself for a life lived in community after all, with a wife, a family, a neighborhood. What better way to live that out than to make those around him a part of his engagement? And really, it was the people that he met that gave him the greatest joy. I would ask him most nights what had gone on in his day, and without fail he would tell the story of the latest person to drop by the house for a tune-up.

And so it is that the last bike has come through the house and David is packing his bags for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest weekends of his life. Of course, the story doesn't end here. The best one is yet to come...

The Crazy Things I'll Do For You - A Sneak Preview

They said yes....and then my motorcycle broke down

I will readily admt that I was jittery about talking with Chrissa's parents on Sunday. There's something very humbling about asking someone if you can have their daughter in marriage. As we neared the end of our salads and plates of spaghetti bake, I asked the question fully prepared for long conversation filled with tough question and dificult answers. Instead, they both started to smile, and said, "We thought this might be coming. We've talked about it a lot, and we want you to know we're very excited about it." We spent the next two hours talking about about how they came to be so excited about me marrying their daughter. In response, I shared more with them about how I want to lead a marraige and the husband that I want to be. Then we prayed for a bit, and I went on my way....

This is me right before I left Lynchburg at about 9pm. I squatted down in front of the headlight of my motorcycle so that I could take a video for Chrissa about my talk with her parents.

This is my bike at about 11pm at a Sheetz an hour away from DC. I stopped to get some gas, and when I flipped my starter to get back on the road, blamo, everything went dark. I lost all power.

This is Kibbie. She's the wonderful young lady who scrounged up the tools I needed. Without her, I would have been completely stuck.! After over two hours of competely rewiring my electrical system, the moto was revived! There's more than MTO at Sheetz people. There are good folks and all the necessary tools too.

Finally, this is me at 3am when I made it home. I was absolutely exhausted and absolutely excited!

500 Views!

Wow! I just found the "stats" section of my blog. I couldn't believe that I've had 500 visitors in the last month! Thanks again everyone for being a part of this. Can't wait to put up the posts everyone's been waiting to see. Have I posted the date yet? Nov. 21. That's just 5 days away

Itinerary

Everything is set! Luckily Chrissa lives 200 miles away and knows nothing of this blog, so I'm going to go ahead let my DC friends in on the details. Thanks again everyone for making this possible!

6:00am - Arrive at the airport where Andrew will be ready with the plane warmed up and ready to fly

8:30am - Land at Charleston International, jump in our rental car, and head to Edisto Beach, SC

10:00am - Go to church at the place where Chrissa used to sing in the choir

12:00pm - Hit the beach for a delightful picnic...and then ask her to marry me

4:00pm - Start back to the airport and then the return flight to Lynchburg

7:00pm - Land and then go to the house where we will get ready. Chrissa still thinks the party we're planning for that night is her "going away" party. She made an appointment to get her hair done that day for the event, so I called  had that appointment cancelled so that I could hire someone to be at the house to do her hair when we get there

8:30pm - Arrive at our reverse surprise party and tell everyone we're ENGAGED!!!!

That is of course if she says yes. I guess it will be a very awkward going away party if she doesn't....I think she will though. Just don't want to take her for granted.

The Ring is Perfect

I just drove to my previously undisclosed location, which was actually my contractor's HQ building with the package addressed to my boss Todd. He's great. Love that guy, but that's whole different post. One of my friends Aaron from my current off-site assigment came with me, and we all had lunch together with Todd's daughter Kelsey around the big HQ executive conference room table. The UPS package just sat there in between us all waiting to be opened as we ate our macaroni and meatballs, caught up on each other's lives, and just enjoyed being all together. Never would have considered that macaroni and meatball combination, but when you tell someone who is going to Noodles and Company to surprise you, I guess that's what you get. 

Anyway, after a needlessly suspensefull, yet altogether delightful, lunch I commensed with the package opening. As I opened it, I realized how awesome it was to share that moment with some very dear friends. Thankfully, they were good friends, because the package opening became a frustrating experience through which lesser friends might have become impatient and disinterested. I started and opened the overly large main box to reveal a smaller box. Within the smaller box, an envelope. Within the envolope, a smaller envelope. Within this smaller envelope, approximately 1 minute after beginning or what felt like about 35 minutes taking into account all the adrenaline and excitement, a small white box...

Now take in mind that I had not seen this diamond yet. I went through my previously mentioned, mysterious diamond guy in Indiana to get it. I drove back to Indiana several weeks ago to view some stones he got in for me, but none of them were it, so I left town empty handed and decided to continue our work long distance to get the PERFECT stone. And he did it! After several more weeks of talking to him almost everyday and reveiwing all the stones on the market accesssible to him, we found exactly what I wanted.

...I opened that small white box, and the diamond was absolutely brilliant. The sparkle was unreal. It jumped out and practically punched me in the face. So maybe that was sort of a manly way to say it, but with all this romantic stuff I'm putting up all over the internet, I think I may be getting a complex. Anyway, I can't believe this happening guys. It has been perfect. The whole process, and now even the beautiful, sparkling, Tiffany-set diamond has been perfect. More than that, it has been so much fun to share my excitement with so many of the people that are closest to me and feel that they are truly excited with me.

Touchdown

I've only refreshed my web browser 25 times in the last 30 minutes. That's actually pretty far below average for the last few hours. My diamond guy mailed out my diamond yesterday. I should have told him to wait until just a little bit before it was supposed to arrive to send me the tracking info because this is brutal. I don't think I have ever been so excited, or so aware, when one of my packages reached Louisville, Kentucky, or Chantilly, or Springfield...not that I was checking...every minute. The plane has touched down, and my diamond is on the ground.  

So then I decided to google "ups tracking addiction" and see if anyone else shared the same nervous tick. It turns out they do! In 10 seconds, I found the exact program I needed. Unfortunately, my diamond should probably hit its undisclosed location (not my house, so don't even try to come rob me) pretty soon here.

I actually kind of want to send it back and have it mailed again so I can use the Package Mapping program I found to ease my anxiety. Sounds like a sweet program. You make an account, enter your package info, and it sets up the tracking as an RSS feed, so all you have to do is check your RSS. If there has been an update, you get a new headline. Click the headline, and it opens up a google map with the entire package route with highlights for the locations where it has been scanned. Since my diamond is just about here, I think I'm going to go buy something else right now, preferebly less expensive than a diamond, just so I can try this!

Anyway, you probably guessed that the picture up at the top of the post is the dimaond I bought, that after 25,000 bike tune-ups, I could finally afford the 10.2 carat diamond that my lovely girl deserves. That was a bad guess. There's no way I could have done that many tune-ups in just a week. Seriously, do the math.

Although I haven't done quite 25,000 tune-ups yet, and my stone isn't quite that big, it will look delightfully big, beautiful, and shiny on her hand. Ah! I can't wait to get my diamond! I can't wait to put in on her finger! I can't wait for her to be mine and for me to be hers!!!!

Matchbox

This is David. Well it's actually two Davids, but the one on the left is really the more important one. He works at Matchbox Pizza in Eastern Market. He's awesome. Go to Matchbox and see him. I think most of the people reading this blog are in the neighborhood, and I hope this whole ordeal can connect some people that otherwise would have never crossed paths. David's got some great stories from working as an AP journalist and teacher in Thailand for a couple years and a sweet Peugot, so go get an incredible pizza, say hey, and support some DC entrepreneurs!

2 Days...7 Bikes Later...

...my hands are dirty. Yesterday at work, I felt like I was finally a member of Tyler Durden's Fight Club. I was in a meeting passing out reports around the table with my grease stained hands, fingers missing more than a few pieces of skin, and all I kept hearing was, "The first rule of what David does at night, is you don't talk about what David does at night."

Before anyone gets the wrong idea about my meetings though, I will also say that during that meeting I also found a way to point to my biceps and say, "It's OK, I have a permit for these things", not really all that intense of a meeting.

This is photo of me taking the BCA challenge. This 1970s Bicycle Club of America road king tested my skills, but I think the two guys in the next picture who were kind enough to bring by two bikes were pleased with the result.



I just can't believe how fun this has been. Every person that has come by has lived within just a couple block radius. I've met more of my neighbors in the last two nights of tune-ups than I have in my 7 months on the hill. I love it! I can't wait to introduce Chrissa to all of you. This is turning out much different but much better than I ever could have expected.

8 HAPPY CUSTOMERS SO FAR!!!

---INTERMISSION---

Yep, that's a blurry picture of my bunghole. Can't believe I put a picture of my bunghole on the internet, but I feel like I know you all so well now... A bunghole is the airlock at the top of the big glass jug you see in the pics. It allows the CO2 from fermentation to get out without letting any air back in. It all makes sense now huh? So that's where that word came from...

 Anyway...after tune-ups on Thurs, I had 5 gallons of hard cider fermenting that was ready to bottle, so my roommate Carson and I took a brief intermission from the world of the bicycle and journeyed through the world of fall flavored alcohol. 

It has to sit in the bottle for two weeks in order to carbonate, but I'm expecting everyone who has helped me out to come by for a drink at some point before Christmas. Yep, I set a deadline. Don't mess with the deadline!

Cap South Metro

Well......Just got back from my first day at the metro. Wow, that was tough, but quite fun actually. I got lectured by a few frumpy old men about the evils of marriage, but overall the response was AWESOME!!! Met some great people like these two nice ladies in the video, and I heard a lot of really cool marriage and proposal stories.

I hope everyone connects with me on twitter or emails so that I can keep up with you! I had a couple requests to come to the wedding! Keep in touch, and we'll see what we can do.


Tomorrow I hope to get to another spot. For now, I'm off to my first bike tune-ups!


10% THERE!!!

Motivation

This young fellow is my motivation for trying so hard to make this good. If this is ever going to happen, I need your help friends. Success depends on people like you to help keep me from screwing it up!